Where in the bible does it speak about the child shall reap what the father saws?

Question

I heard something about what we do affecting our descendents up to a thousand generations. Where does the bible speak of this? About the seeds we saw for our children?

Answer 1

sows . . .

It is mentioned in Moses 34:7, Numbers 14:16 and Deut. 5:9 as well. I heard a Christian psychologist state this was one way to explain nature versus nurture (genetics versus environment) to a people who did not understand science.

Genetics: I know we used to use a video from PBS on alcoholism that mentioned brain changes in the children and grandchildren of alcoholics. For some people, it only takes a single drink to be instantly addicted. This was based on autopsy studies that spanned 3 generations. I always had participants in my smoking cessation class who never had the negative effects of smoking and was addicted from the first puff.

Environment: Domestic Violence is the easiest to understand for most people to understand. If a child is raised in an abusive home, they tend to repeat the poor patterns of interactions including abuse. It is thought to take at least 4 generations to erase these patterns.

I have never heard of the 1000 generations before. I do think there is a scripture that mentions to the 6th generation. Of course, the key is to stop the behavior before it changes genetics and before it is the only known behaviors for a generation to live their life and pass on to the next.

Answer 2

It does not quiet mean that. The sins of the father will follow or visit the children to the third and fourth generation. The child will not necessarily pay for the fathers sins, but the child will be exposed to that sin. Unless someone repents somewhere down the line, iniquity may remain in the family. Sin's hold must be broken. We see this principal working out today in families. In an otherwise normally moral family one child may take drugs. Some of that child's children will take drugs, then all of their children will take drugs, and go to prison, and murder, and rob and so on. The principal of sowing and reaping is consistent- if you sow, you always reap, usually later, always more than you sow, and it is hard to stop. In one side of my family I am seeing the 3rd generation of a sin that keeps growing. The 4th generation is about to be born. They have all been progressively worse. The 3rd was very bad, I wonder what the 4th will bring. It is a sad thing to watch.

Answer 3

Exodus 20:5

Answer 4

Exodus 20:5
"...the iniquities of the fathers are visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation -
- of them that hate me...."
is what the passage states.
If you love God, it doesn't have to be that way.

It became a belief among the Jews that anyone having trials in life must have had personal sin, or the sins of his parents passed down to him in judgment.

Ezekiel 18:1 and following refutes that belief.
The Apostles asked Jesus, "Who hath sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?"
Jesus corrected, "Neither this man nor his parents had sinned causing his blindness. He was born blind so that the mighty works of God could be revealed in him today."

Answer 5

You will find your answer in the King James version bible. Exodus,chapter20,verse 5. Read it slowly. God said not a thousand generations but unto the third and fourth .

Answer 6

What it says is: The sins of the father's will be bestowed upon the children. Look it up online.

Answer 7

I think this only applies to the children of carpenters.

Answer 8

What the kids get the saw dust??

Answer 9

http://www.bethanybible.org/askpastor/sins.htm